Image: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Raymond Steele, Levi Blanton and Russell Westergard Are the Juggalos a “criminal street gang” or not? We say no. Mesa police — in this case, anyway — say yes. Cops busted a trio of woop-woopers on Wednesday in connection with four break-ins at a deaf school. According…
An agent with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a Customs officer were arrested this morning after being indicted on suspicion of stealing government money. Agent Michael J. Kittson, 34, and U.S. Customs Patrol Officer Douglas R. Bothof are named in a 47-count indictment that accuses them…
An ex-con from Glendale took a bus to Chesapeake, Virginia this week to meet (and hopefully have sex with) a 13-year-old girl he met online, police say. The two had been communicating via the Internet since May, but the girl was really a Virginia state cop, according to media reports. After arriving…
Two years ago, Sun Lakes resident Francis Ray Collins reported that his wife, Linda Steer, fell off a cliff to her death on a trip to Apache Lake.The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office yesterday announced the arrest of Collins, 50, and that it’s seeking a second-degree murder charge on Steer in…
Police arrested a 24-year-old man in connection with a fatal DUI collision early Saturday morning. Andre Jeremy Wilkinson was driving his 2008 Nissan Titan pickup at about 4 a.m. when he slammed into the back of a 1995 Buick that was stopped at a red light at the corner…
News media covered the arrests of two suspected murderers this weekend, including one who allegedly confessed to an AM/PM store clerk. Channel 15 [KNXV-TV] has a good interview about the Tucson store clerk who chatted with Jerome Pringle, accused of killing 41-year-old Alice Saunders of Phoenix. Saunders’ body was discovered…
An undocumented, armed Phoenix resident left his gun where kids could find it, and now an 8-year-old boy is fighting for his life after getting shot in the face, police say. Police make Javier Gudino Cruz, 24, the boy’s uncle, look like anything but a law-abiding, responsible, possessor of a…
Image: Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Ignacio Lopez-Leon has been arrested on suspicion of second-degree murder. Records show he was booked into the Maricopa County jail yesterday. The county attorney’s office does not yet have information to provide about the case. We’ll update this post later…
This just in from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix:Brian Roehrich, the 40-year-old former owner of Sugar Daddy’s, Dos Gringos, Trailer Park, and Joe’s Apartment bars, has been sentenced to two years for tax evasion. He’s supposed to turn himself in by September 9. Roehrich had a system at his…
The 911 hang-up call from Glendale came in just after four in the morning on Monday. Someone answered the phone each of the three times police operators called back. The first time: No response, noise in background. Second time: Woman screaming in background. Third time: A man answers, tells police…
Cops figured Mesa cardiologist Richard Lewis had fondled more than just the two women they knew about when he was arrested in June. Now, Mesa police say an investigation has uncovered 16 more victims, thanks in part to widespread media coverage. Police didn’t release details of the new cases…
An employee at the McClintock High School bookstore embezzled about $192,000 from the store in a two-year period, Tempe police say. Rebecca Sue Soto, 49, [above], was arrested this morning at her Tempe home following a lengthy investigation by police. According to cops, someone saw Soto leave the school…
A Phoenix woman who coached boys — including her teenaged sons — on the fine art of armed robbery wasn’t quite as bad as the real Ma Barker, says a weekend story by the Associated Press. We covered the case for you last month after police announced the arrests…
Police made two more arrests last night in the case of a fatal arson fire last month at a Phoenix business, Young Champions of America. Josh Robinson, 28, a karate instructor at the company, was killed in the blaze that he helped start, police say. Jeffrey Otto, 19, and Moniza Murillo,…
Phoenix resident Antwone Coleman, 28, was booked into jail this week on grand jury charges of first-degree murder and aggravated assault, though we’re still trying to find out details of his alleged crime. The Maricopa Superior Court and County Attorney’s Office had no details for us yet, but a bit of Googling came up…
Police have arrested 19-year-old Antonio Loren Reid on suspicion of shooting another man to death in the street just outside of a house party. Valley Fever featured Reid and his alleged getaway car driver, Brittany Lemons, in a post earlier this month after police put out a bulletin. Today, we…
A 42-year-old Peoria police officer with two years on the job shot at a berserk man who pointed a rifle at him last night, cops say. All police will say about the suspect so far is that he’s a 23-year-old Peoria resident. Calls began coming in about him at about 11:45…
What a scammer! Timothy Keay Isaac, 47, pleaded guilty today in federal court to a slew of charges related to his illicit company, which brought into the country a Chinese Viagra-like drug without prescriptions. But this is the part that bugs us: In 2006, Isaac applied for disability benefits from…
A lost flash drive full of kiddie porn led to the arrest of a 63-year-old man for suspected exploitation of a minor.The Tempe police case began when an employee at Tempe Marketplace picked up the flash drive on May 28 in the parking lot behind Harkins Theatres. He brought it…
Three Subway restaurant employees thwarted a robbery yesterday by simply walking away from the wanna-be gangsta trying to hold them up. The unusual incident began just before 11 p.m. last night at the eatery, 450 S. Sossaman, when a dude with black tape on his face piercing came in and…
Benny Peralta’s a caring guy who helps the elderly. Until they piss him off. The 46-year-old became enraged while getting fired yesterday by his employer, a woman who had hired him to assist with her disabled, 62-year-old husband, Phoenix police say. As the husband sat in his wheelchair, Peralta snatched the family…
It’s been a particularly bloody few days for Valley children. Loggan Lampert, 14, is bludgeoned to death by his uncle. A 2-year-old beaten with a belt buckle, allegedly by her mom’s boyfriend, dies. Another 2-year-old dies after being hit by a car in his trailer park. And now this: A…
